Month: February 2011

Food Notes for February 28, 2011

Mack and I went to Calgary for the weekend for a short getaway. As much as I know that Edmonton is always competing with #yyc, Calgary is a very nice place to visit (even more so when you throw caution to the wind and stay in a fancy hotel). On to this week’s food notes:

The Bothy

Mack’s first scotch glass!

The Bothy

Charcuterie and cheese selection, featuring O Sol’ Meatos cardamom salami and Jam Lady condiments

The Bothy

Chicken and leek pie with tomato and bacon soup

  • I met up with my family at Urban China for lunch last week. I haven’t been back there for dim sum since my visit early last year, but from what I hear, they’ve really improved (it is now at the top of my parents’ list of dim sum favourites). The har gao and siu mai seemed particularly tasty.

Urban China

Pork and shrimp dumplings

  • Last time, the epic battle featured Mr. Bacon vs. Mr. Tofu, but in another death match with only one winner, who would survive: the corndog or broccoli?

Corndog vs. Broccoli

Captain Corndog vs. Baron Von Broccoli (as seen in Livingstone & Cavell Toys in Calgary)

Have a good week!

Terwillegar Community Recreation Centre

The Terwillegar Community Recreation Centre (TCRC) opened its doors on January 29, 2011, finally revealing the $160 expenditure and the City’s largest recreation facility in thirty years. I don’t venture out into Terwillegar that often, so a board meeting scheduled to take place at the rec centre was a nice excuse to check out the new digs.

Like anything sparkly and new, the facility is impressive, but even more so because of its size. I do support smaller, neighbourhood-based facilities (where driving isn’t necessary), but the TCRC is located near residential communities and next to two high schools and a bus station just a short ride away from Century Park.

Natural light permeates many of the public spaces – the fitness centre, the pool, the children’s areas. It is amazing how much difference that, coupled with high ceilings, makes to the feel of the building (my memories of City rec centres involve the Mill Woods Recreation Centre – a concrete box if there ever was one).

They have four NHL-sized arenas, one with a side of spectator bleachers, knowing that hockey tournaments will be (and already have been) hosted there.

Ice surface

One of the ice surfaces

I didn’t take a photo of the aquatic centre, but it looked like the place to be. In addition to lane swim, have a thirty-person whirlpool, a waterslide, and a fun lazy river for children. It is noteworthy that they use saltwater (instead of chlorine).

The indoor children’s playground was full when our tour group went by – apparently, it is in such demand they need to use a buzzer system similar to what restaurants use to alert parents that there is space available. TCRC, like many other rec centres, also offers childminding services.

Childminding room

Childminding room

The fitness centre was my favourite area – bright and airy on the second floor, I loved that the jogging track wrapped around the main equipment space, and also provided views of the aquatic centre.

Fitness Centre

Fitness centre

There are a great many programming rooms also, and some build with specific activities in mind – for example, the yoga studio with dehumidifiers, meant for hot yoga.

Aerobics room

Aerobics studio with sprung floor

The flexihall has the capacity to be divided into three gymnasiums. They can be booked, but on that day, all of them were being used for drop-in activities.

TCRC has even budgeted for public art – including this amusing sculpture above the rotunda.

Cat in an afghan

Cat in an afghan

Perhaps even more surprising – there is both a Second Cup and a Dairy Queen/Orange Julius on site! The lease space is great idea to help recoup some of the costs of the building, and given its proximity to two secondary schools, the food outlets will likely be a bang-on success.

Second CupDQ

How about some ice cream or coffee with your workout?

Some of the meeting rooms were very nice (including one of the more private spaces, with a view of Edmonton’s downtown skyline). The meeting room we used that night, however, had the unfortunate placement of being just below the weights machines in the fitness area. Suffice to say, we experienced a disruptive number of dropped weights, something TCRC should look into.

Meeting room

Meeting room

All in all, the Terwillegar Community Recreation Centre is something the City should be proud of – and given the number of people using it on a random Tuesday night, it’s safe to say that it may be both well loved and well used!

The Terwillegar Community Recreation Centre is holding their grand opening tomorrow, February 26, 2011, from 2-5pm. Cake will be served!

Indoor Composting with Bokashi

Mack and I are delinquent Bokashi bloggers. At the end of last year, I wrote that I would be writing about our Bokashi experience “soon”. Well, that undefined period has become eight weeks in length. But no longer!

In December, Mack answered the call put out by Mike Thomas for people interested in trying out an indoor composting method that did not involve worms. We met up with him one weekend, and he supplied us with our own Bokashi starter kit – three Ziploc bags of Bokashi, and an Eco Living Organic plastic tub outfitted with a drainage tap and a lid.

Composter
Indoor composter

Michael explained that Bokashi is a bran-based mixture, that when added to certain natural materials, and void of oxygen, would help ferment organic matter. He provided us with a list of permitted additions, which included everything from vegetable peels, tea bags, egg shells and bones. Not permitted? Anything bleached (e.g. white coffee filters), mouldy, or liquid.

Just starting!
Base layer of Bokashi

The composting process seemed simple: add permitted materials to the tub, sprinkle some Bokashi over it, and give it a stir. Michael also advised using something like a plate or a plastic bag to cover the top of the mixture which would help squeeze and keep out excess air. The compost smell would be minimal, and was to resemble a pickling odour and nothing more.

First addition
Our first composter additions!

Every few days, Michael said the mixture would yield 2-3 tablespoons of liquid, which we could dilute and use as a fertilizer for plants, or pour down the drain to act as a sort of natural Draino.

In terms of “disposing” of the rich compost material, as condo dwellers without a yard or a community garden plot, we still had a few options, including throwing the material out in the garbage (in the grand scheme, if everyone composted even a little, it would impact overall waste management systems, in lightening the garbage load). That seemed a little “wasteful”, so we figured we’d donate the material to my parents, who do have a garden.

Since we started using Bokashi, we’ve made a few observations:

1) It is easy to use! Adopting Rachael Ray’s “garbage bowl” technique, I would place all of the scraps in a bowl, and dump the contents into the tub at the end of the day. The only minor inconvenience was having to cut up things like grapefruit halves and banana peels – Mike recommended nothing larger than the size of a potato chip go into the tub.

Garbage Bowl
Garbage bowl!

2) Because we cook quite a bit, our tub was about two thirds full in about a month. As Michael had said, most of the peels would retain their shape and colour – it was odd to see that things like orange peels remaining intact week after week.

Still early on
Still early

3) We were checking for the liquid every few days during that time – but none was produced.

We left it alone for a while, unsure of how long to let the mixture break down. More importantly, we weren’t sure if we had messed it up – though the smell was tolerable (a sort-of pickling smell), because of the lack of liquid (still, after two months), we weren’t sure if we were on the right path. Mike reassured us that we might be though (and more Bokashi can fix most ills), and advised us to simply add more organic material to the mix.

Bokashi
Our compost after two months

More posts about Bokashi to come (for real this time)!

You can read about Sarah’s experience with Bokashi here (as a single family home dweller with a young child) – unlike us, she hasn’t been delinquent.

Art Burn at the 2011 Silver Skate Festival

At twenty one years of age, the Silver Skate Festival is the granddaddy of winter festivals in our fair city. Of course, that doesn’t mean that everyone in Edmonton is aware that Silver Skate exists, in spite of the fact that it offers something for everyone. What other event hosts a winter triathlon, long blade skate tryouts, snow sculptures, musical performances and fun with fire?

That said, it was a mostly brutal weekend for the festival to fall on – bitterly cold temperatures probably kept some curious festivalgoers away, and had we not already agreed to judge the Art Burn competition, as Mack mentioned, he and I likely would have been among those under self-imposed house arrest too. Of course – Edmontonians are a hearty lot, so it wasn’t a surprise that we encountered a small crowd at Hawrelak Park when we arrived at Silver Skate on Saturday night.

Walking to the festival grounds from the bus stop was a bit of an adventure in itself. Erin Di Loreto, Festival Producer, explained that one of the challenges of the site was access to power, but the stick lanterns that lined the path really didn’t really do the job. Moreover, though it might be minor in the grand scheme of things, some sand around the main programming space might have also helped in the relative darkness.

Once we arrived at the grounds, located next to the permanent shelter and concession building, we found it to be quite spirited indeed, but acknowledgement of the temperature – a tent had been set up to shield the musical performers from the cold, with a few fires set up around the stage to keep onlookers warm.

The snow sculptures were also noteworthy, picturesque and beautifully illuminated.

Silver Skate Festival

Snow sculpture alley

Silver Skate Festival

Some of the snow sculptures were still being touched up!

Silver Skate Festival

Fun Yelp throne

After meeting up with our fellow judges (Chris Carson, Director of Visual Arts Alberta and Shane Golby with the AGA), we took a look at the sculptures (with the aid of flashlights – most people would only see them once they were alight).

There were six sculptures in total, crafted from hay, wood, fabric and a few other indeterminately flammable materials. We were to judge them on criteria that included their artistic nature pre-burn, as well as how well the fire served the sculpture (and vice versa).

Silver Skate Festival

Marissa Kochanski’s phoenix

The lighting of the sculptures was almost as elaborate as the construction of them, and involved the Vibe Tribe, a dance troop that plays with fire.

Silver Skate Festival

The Vibe Tribe was so much fun to watch (we still have no idea how the woman with the hula hoop managed not to set herself on fire)

The crowd followed them to the roped off area, and under the watchful eye of a Fire Marshall, the dancers set each of the six sculptures on fire.

Silver Skate Festival

Follow the vibe

The pre-burn favourite was also the post-burn favourite: Marissa Kochanski’s phoenix, with elegant wings constructed from strips of fabric. Unlike a few of the other sculptures, it also collapsed in a graceful manner.

Silver Skate Festival

Phoenix, post-burn

It was a spectacle that Mack and I were happy to witness, let alone judge. Thanks again to Erin for the opportunity!

Looking for more winter fun? Check out the Mill Creek Adventure Walk, February 25-26, or the Elk Island Star Party on March 5, 2011.

Food Notes for February 21, 2011

Nothing like a long weekend to refresh the spirit! Hope you had a good Family Day as well. On to this week’s food notes:

  • Twyla blogged about her epic Valentine’s Day dinner at Bistro La Persaud – it looked amazing.
  • I love sneaking a peek into people’s kitchens, especially for the day-to-day stuff, so I love Marianne’s recent posts about her “meal planning sagas”. She and Charles are exemplars that you can eat well at home, even without a lot of time to cook!
  • Are you intimidated by the prospect of making your own sausages? (I know I am.) Valerie’s photo essay helped somewhat – at the very least, it looks like a lot of fun!
  • Culina’s TV Dinners are now available gluten-free.
  • Chris Kourouniotis, a designer that brought us the interiors of Hundred and Press’d, among others, was interviewed for the Journal. It was interesting to read about his thoughts behind decor, such as “If you want to sell more liquor than food, say, 60 per cent versus 40 per cent, we tend to darken the colours, provide richer reds and earth tones, with red being the driving flavour, and we have way more millwork and wood in a bar or a heavy liquor space. We really try to warm up the space, because psychology shows that’s what sells the beverages.”
  • The Journal also had an article about Cheemo Perogies – they’re an amazing success story (they produce half a billion perogies every year!), but I had no idea they used locally grown flour, canola oil and potatoes in their products.
  • Vue Weekly’s issue this week focused on brunch in Edmonton. One standout article – a piece that finds out the brunch favourites of Jacqueline Jacek (of Jacek Chocolates), Michael Harvey (of Cafe Haven) and Nate Box (of Elm Cafe).
  • Perhaps it will be Transcend Coffee that will raise tea to a new level in Edmonton?
  • Speaking of coffee, Calgary’s John Manzo wrote about a recent experience in Good Earth Cafe that gets one thinking about the quality control in place at successful third wave coffee shops.
  • Mack and I stopped by Crave Cupcakes (7929 104 Street) on Saturday. It’s a bright little store, with pretty display pedestals. We tried the Va Va Vanilla (vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream) and the Lemon Lime Twist (lemon cake with lime buttercream). The lemon cake was the standout – moist, light, and subtle.

Crave Cupcakes

Interior

Crave Cupcakes

Cupcakes

  • My office celebrated Black History Month with a potluck last week. It’s hard not to love a place where we not only regularly gather around homemade meals, but the lunch also dissolves into a dance party!

Black History Month potluck

The potluck spread

The 2011 California Wine Fair: A Sampling

I know you’ve seen it, just as I have – the bold, back-page ad in The Tomato advertising the California Wine Fair, now in its thirteenth year. One of the Citadel Theatre’s premiere fundraising events, the California Wine Fair boasts over 300 wines and food catered by the Shaw Conference Centre, all for the price of $65 a ticket. This year’s event will be held on March 8, 2011 at 7pm in Hall D.

Part of the preparations for the Citadel staff include selecting the food which would complement the wines. Along with Mel, it was a privilege to be asked to join several staff for a tasting of hors d’oeuvres at the Shaw Conference Centre on Thursday.

Table

The tasting table

Natasha Susylinski, of Treasury Wine Estates, had chosen four wines for this tasting. A range of representative California wines, they included a Stag’s Leap Chardonnay, Santa Barbara Pinot Noir, Beringer Cabernet Sauvignon, and a St. Clement Oroppas Cabernet Sauvignon (a list of the wineries that will be present can be found here).

Wine selection

The wine spread

As one who prefers white wine, and sweeter whites at that (most Chardonnays are too dry for my taste), my palate probably wasn’t the best one for the wines. That said, like most wine reps, Natasha had a fun anecdote about each of the wines, which always helps with making that particular label memorable. For example, Sapporo (the Japanese beer company) once owned St. Clement, and named one of the wines after themselves: Oroppas (or “Sapporo” spelled backwards).

After we had familiarized ourselves with the wines, we were introduced to the food options. The idea was to choose three appetizers from the fourteen options presented.

SEared scallop fork with vanilla apple chutney

Cold platters, featuring seared scallop form with vanilla apple chutney

All of the hors d’oeuvres were so visually appealing – daintily prepared, garnished with bursts of colour, they were almost too beautiful to eat.

Jerk chicken and mango chutney in a tortilla cup

Jerk chicken and mango chutney in a tortilla cup

Though most of us were hard pressed to pick our preferences, a few emerged as favourites around the table, including the goat cheese sphere with caramelized onion marmalade (creamy texture with just the right amount of sweetness), the barbequed duck with hoisin mayonnaise and wonton chip (a perfectly rounded bite with a satisfying crunch), and the roasted shallot, spinach and feta cheese tartlet (buttery and a good alternative to the more pedestrian spanakopita). These three will likely end up on the final menu.

oat cheese sphere with caramalized onion marmalade

Goat cheese sphere with caramelized onion marmalade

Barbequed duck with hoisin mayonnaise and wonton cup

Barbequed duck with hoisin mayonnaise

In addition to the plated hors d’oeuvres, three varieties of cheese will also be served (oka, brie and old white cheddar). As well, expect to see another classic wine supplement at the event – chocolate truffles.

Truffles

Dark chocolate espresso with biscotti crumbs, ginger milk chocolate, banana with toasted coconut, and salted caramel truffles

These weren’t the heavy, unyielding mounds I am used to – instead, each bite revealed a thin chocolate shell that encompassed a velvety filling. The standout flavour for me was definitely the salted caramel – there is no doubt I’d be eating my weight in these truffles at the Fair.

Thanks to Pam and Sydney for inviting me to be a part of a fun afternoon!

Tickets for the March 8, 2011 California Wine Fair can be purchased online.

Day 2 in San Francisco: Fruitful Wanderings

When travelling, I have a tendency to try and plan out our days as much as possible. In the case of San Francisco however, I didn’t have much time to do so (I was still frantically reading guidebooks on the plane ride over). But because we had ten glorious days to spend in the Bay area, having a lack of itineraries actually worked out quite well – day two was a great example of that.

We started our day on a walking tour, something that has become a bit of a tradition on each of our last few trips. I was happy to find out that San Francisco is home to a bonanza of complimentary tours: San Francisco City Guides is a non-profit organization that offers over thirty different walks each month that span all areas of interest, for free (though donations are gratefully accepted).

We decided to start in Chinatown, given our hotel’s proximity to the neighbourhood. Our group of over thirty people trailed a guide for two hours or so, and though we were hoping it would get better along the way, we were disappointed.

Chinatown

Chinatown

Sure, we did learn some history (our guide pointed out some tiny windows that captive prostitutes would have used to solicit customers), and he did lead us through a live seafood and poultry shop that we probably would not have stepped foot in on our own, but having prefaced his tour with not wanting to perpetuate stereotypes, he seemed to create some of his own (among other things, he claimed that all Chinese, even those with several generations of American ancestors, were fluent in Chinese).

Chinatown

Such narrow alleys

Chinatown

Colourful lanterns

ChinatownChinatown

Not pets

One of the tour stops was the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Company, which was on our “to visit” list anyway. It was rather underwhelming as well – dim, and set-up almost like a front with two women forming the v-shaped cookies out by hand, the owner seemed to be more annoyed with visitors than anything else, which just seemed counterintuitive given tourists probably made up most of his business. We left with a few bags of cookies, and also the following photo which cost us 50 cents to take.

Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Company

Inside the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Company

The guide did make one impression – he said that in the past, restaurants in Chinatown would build their restaurants on the ground floor so that customers would be able to “conduct their own health inspections” as they walked past to the seating area on the upper floors. The only relic left from this era of dining was Sam Wo, and since it was lunch time anyway, we thought it was a good choice as any.

Sam Wo

Sam Wo

The food was definitely westernized, but was decent (and really, for $15, pretty darn cheap). The broccoli was the better dish, nicely cooked and coated in a savoury sauce.

Sam Wo

Broccoli and beef, and yang zhou fried rice

Satisfied, we decided to continue on to Fisherman’s Wharf (aka Tourist Mecca).

Fisherman's Wharf

The Wharf

The Wharf/Pier 39 turned out to be a great place to wander, especially on a hot day – the cool breeze off the water was refreshingly welcome.

Pier 39

Mack with Alcatraz in the background

Pier 39

I could have easily spent the afternoon watching the sea lions belch and flop

We did some browsing (it was hard to imagine the shops pre-tourist days – what did they sell if not t-shirts, postcards and cameras?), and eventually ended up at Ghirardelli Square.

Fisherman's Wharf

Segway tours

After sampling free chocolate (the pumpkin spice chocolate tasted exactly like a pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks), we skipped the crazy line up at the Ghirardelli ice cream bar in favour of a treat from Kara’s Cupcakes.

It’s a lovely pink store, with the pricey $3.25 cupcake justified by Kara’s dedication to using local ingredients. My Fleur de Sel cupcake was rich, but the salty-sweet combination is slowly growing on me, and better yet, it had the perfect icing-to-cake ratio. Mack enjoyed Kara’s Carrot, pointing out that the cake was studded with raisins, and liked the cream cheese icing.

Fisherman's Wharf

Cupcakes

Being an adult fan of Chuck E Cheese, it was no surprise our next stop was the Musee Mechanique on Pier 45 (something I had read about in one of the guides).

Musee Mecanique

A different kind of football

The Musee Mechanique is an interactive celebration of antique arcade machines and mechanically operated musical instruments – instead of viewing the machines from behind a rope or pane of glass, you could actually play them!

Musee Mecanique

Mack tried twice, but couldn’t beat the machine

I had such a blast! And given most machines cost a quarter to play, it was probably some of the cheapest fun we had in San Francisco (and one of my favourite destinations overall).

Musee Mecanique

Aim and fire!

Back on the tourist path, we stepped inside Boudin Bakery, where San Francisco sourdough was invented. They had quite the little empire – a bakery, grocery/gift shop, and a formal restaurant. I loved the moving baskets whizzing overhead, “delivering” bread to the counters.

I had a good time just browsing the pretty bottles of olive oils and vinegars and marvelling at their novelty loaves shaped like crabs, turtles and teddy bears.

Boudin

Bread, glorious bread!

We settled on a sourdough baguette ($2.69), just to get a taste of something made with the same wild yeast from 150 years prior. The bread was distinctly sour (too sour for our palates, anyway), but we loved the crackly crust.

Boudin

I love me some bread

All the bread in the world couldn’t have prepared us for the “hill of death” though (seriously, if it wasn’t paved, it would have been a cliff of magnificent proportions), which we chose to walk up to reach Lombard Street.

San Francisco

Mack smiles through the burn

Lombard Street has the distinction of being the “crookedest street in the world”, with eight hairpin turns. Being the tourist destination it is, with people walking down either side, or driving through it, Mack and I could hardly believe it was a residential street – who would want to live with gawkers constantly in your front yard?

Crooked Street

Lombard Street

Like visiting Lombard, riding a streetcar in San Francisco is another tourist must, so we thought we’d check it off early, and hopped on one to take us up the rest of Powell. It was standing room only, and rather uncomfortable with the jolting stops and sardine spacing inside the car. We did love that the streetcar had complete right of way though – it would stop right in the middle of intersections, immune to traffic laws.

Fisherman's Wharf

Streetcar

We hopped off the streetcar at Union Square (a five minute walk from our hotel), and spent the rest of the evening exploring Westfield Shopping Centre. They had an intense food court (both in terms of options and decor) as well as a Bristol Farms (similar to Whole Foods). We didn’t have plans for dinner, so the cafeteria seemed like a good choice as any. And how could you not order from a place called Jody Maroni’s Sausage Kingdom?

I had the 100% Kobe beef wiener ($6.89) – it was unbelievably juicy, but would have been enhanced with some caramelized onions. The onion bun was a great choice. Mack’s chili dog ($4.69) was piping hot, but he would have appreciated a thicker ‘dog.

San Francisco

Hot dogs from Jody Maroni

Since we scrimped on dinner, we treated ourselves to dessert – cream puffs ($2.50)  from Beard Papa. The vanilla custard filling was tasty (and seemed to be made with real vanilla beans), and the pastry shell was fresh, but to me, was nothing special. Mack liked his chocolate cream puff a little more than I did.

San Francisco

Beard Papa cream puff

We returned to our hotel, ready to rest our feet, as day 3 would see us behind bars – in Alcatraz!

Tiny but Terrific: Niche

On the heels of Corso 32 comes Niche, another tiny, intimate storefront offering a small but thoughtful menu. Jill and I had dinner there last Friday.

Niche

Interior

We loved the room. It’s definitely on the dim side (they will be going through candles like gangbusters), but it suits the space well. With dark wood, exposed brick and a long leather banquet that stretches the length of the room, it is clean and comfortable. The modern feel continues in the bathroom area with common sinks set above more brick, shiny, almost industrial silver stall doors, and a funky wall comprised of pages ripped from Life Magazine.

Niche

Restroom

Besides one minor glitch in service (the server initially directed us to a table in the darkest corner of the restaurant – even though seating options were available elsewhere), it was smooth sailing the rest of the night. Our server had a good sense of humour, and seemed to develop a good rapport with all other parties – especially important in such a small establishment.

As mentioned, the menu options are sparse but solid, with entrees priced at around $20 per plate. Charcuterie and cheese boards are also available, always appreciated as nibbles alongside a glass of wine. Notably, Niche also offers Yellowhead Beer.

I ordered the Spring Creek Ranch beef cheek ($20), served with broad egg noodles. This was my first encounter with beef cheeks, and based on this, I’d have them again. Resembling brisket in appearance, but tender and supple in texture, the meat was very well prepared. Thankfully, the wild mushroom cream sauce wasn’t overwhelming, and the pasta accompaniment just right.

Niche

Spring Creek Ranch beef cheek with egg noodles

Jill ordered the seafood special, featuring steelhead salmon, shrimp and a soy-butter glaze ($23). The salmon was perfectly flaky, and though she remarked that the shrimp were a touch overcooked, she enjoyed the dish overall.

Niche

Salmon, shrimp and a soy-butter glaze

We decided to share a dessert – a salt and caramel drizzled brownie with a dollop of ginger whipped cream ($8). It unfortunately didn’t live up to expectations – the brownie itself was hard and crumbled under fork pressure, and the bursts of salt were too few and far between.

Niche

Salt and caramel brownie

Open for just over a month, though Niche is not yet widely known, I’m sure that’s soon to change. It’s a welcome downtown addition – great for a post-work drink, date night, or dinner before a night out on the town. I will be back soon!

Niche
11011 Jasper Avenue
(780) 761-1011
Monday-Wednesday 4pm-midnight, Thursday-Saturday 4pm-2am, closed Sunday

Night and Day: MRKT

Restaurants that attempt to have multiple identities are not always successful (Blink in Calgary, for example, axed its club aspect to focus on fine dining, while The Treasury here in Edmonton should consider the opposite). MRKT, however, got it right.

After dark, the bustling lunch destination transforms from a fun, bright and airy space into an intimate but unassuming venue, refined enough for a pre-show drink, but comfortable enough for a casual date. Mack and I met up with Marilyn at MRKT last Wednesday evening to catch up over drinks and food.

It wasn’t packed, but there were a number of pairs and small groups that dined during our stay. We could have chosen to sit at the long communal table, but we were looking for just a little more light, so opted for one of the tables along the wall.

They had a good by-the-glass wine selection (meaning: both Mack and I found something that we liked). Curiously, though local producers are highlighted in the food menu, no Edmonton breweries are featured among the selection of beer.

The three of us shared a charcuterie and cheese board (meant for two, $21) to start. Though it didn’t look daunting initially, it would have been a hefty starter for two. The cheese and meat selection will depend upon what the restaurant has on hand – but we all had a favourite that night – the manchego for me, the oka for Mack, the truffled salami for Marilyn.

MRKT

Charcuterie and cheese, paired with some fruit, honey, and Jam Lady condiments

Marilyn and I were both very happy with our entrees: the portion sizes were larger than we’d expected, and everything was nicely cooked. The Spring Creek Ranch boneless beef ribs ($26) were amazingly tender, and I enjoyed the fresh, crunchy slaw that accompanied it. The polenta was a little thin for my liking, but I appreciated the healthy alternative to the usual mashed potatoes.

MRKT

Spring Creek Ranch beef ribs

Marilyn equally enjoyed her artfully presented sauteed prawns on sweet potato mash, tomato butter and white wine & miso-chimicurri ($17).

MRKT

Sauteed prawns

Mack’s dish very much resembled the earlier charcuterie and cheese board – comprised of Cortes Island smoked oysters, smoked tuna, oka and crostini ($19). Though he could have clarified with our waitress about its possible similarity to our appetizer when ordering it, a heads up from her, knowing our appetizer selection, would have been appreciated.

MRKT

Smoked oysters, smoked tuna, cheese and crostini

Other than that minor hiccup, service was laid-back but efficient – we were given the space we needed, dishes arrived in a timely fashion, and the staff were pleasant.

It’s such a fantastic time to be a food lover in Edmonton, but with places like MRKT just around the corner from our condo, it makes me even more grateful to be downtown. We’ll be back!

MRKT
10542 Jasper Avenue
(780) 757-6758
Lunch: Tuesday-Friday 11am-2pm; Dinner: Tuesday-Saturday 5pm-late; closed Sundays and Monday

Day 1 in San Francisco: The Lay of the Land

I had great intentions to blog about San Francisco earlier to the date of our actual trip (September 2010), but procrastination got in the way. Still, better late than never – writing about travels and browsing through old photos always seems like the best way to relive a trip. Perhaps it will make you long for the hills of San Francisco too!

I still don’t remember how the decision of San Francisco as our next vacation destination came about. I had been to SF once before for two days – on the return leg of my family’s journey back to North America after three weeks in the equatorial climes of southeast Asia. It’s safe to say I don’t remember much, save crossing the Golden Gate Bridge and never really acclimatizing to the thirty degree temperature change. Mack, on the other, hand, had never been to San Francisco, in spite of its hub of all things tech (and most notably, is the location of Twitter’s offices).

So in early September, we were off for a ten day trip to San Francisco, a city known for its food, liberal tendencies and a bridge.

At the airport, we hopped on the super-convenient BART train that would lead to a stop about two blocks from our accommodation. Two different people had recommended Hotel Triton to us, part of the Kimpton Hotel chain.

San Francisco

The Triton duckie!

More than any other hotel we’ve ever stayed in, Hotel Triton felt like home. The staff were friendly, always ready with a “welcome back” upon our return,  but mostly, it was the small things – warm chocolate chip cookies available in the lobby every afternoon, free wine every evening, the resident dog Romeo (the concierge’s companion). Or, as a new member of their loyalty program, they offered us a free $10 minibar credit upon check-in.

Kimpton

Our SF home

The location was also hard to beat – right across from the Chinatown Gates, Hotel Triton was five minutes from Union Square and fifteen minutes from the Ferry Building. And whatever we couldn’t walk to, it was just as easy to hop on the BART or grab a bus. I’d recommend Hotel Triton in a heartbeat – and wouldn’t hesitate to stay there again.

Hotel Triton is right in the thick of things

We dropped off our luggage and went in search of lunch. We asked the front desk staff for walking directions to the Heart of the City Farmers’ Market, but they recommended we take the BART instead – apparently, it wasn’t safe to walk (it was the Tenderloin district they were weary of, but we ended up walking through it a few days later anyway, after dark no less, without incident).

Set up outdoors at UN Plaza, the Heart of the City Farmers’ Market wasn’t the largest we would encounter in San Francisco, but it was definitely meant for food shoppers. With no crafts in sight, it was a wonderful introduction to the area’s seasonal fare.

Heart of the City Farmers' Market

Heart of the City Farmers’ Market

Seafood and fresh eggs were available, and though there were a handful of prepared food vendors (spreads, Indian food, kettle corn, baked goods), the focus was undoubtedly on produce. What surprised me was the variety of Asian vegetables available – long beans, Chinese eggplant, bitter melon, among others – and mostly sold without signage.

Heart of the City Farmers' Market

Asian vegetable paradise

Heart of the City Farmers' Market

Such vibrant-coloured eggplant

Heart of the City Farmers' Market

Peaches!

We bought some apples, nectarines and peaches for the week, and some focaccia pizza for lunch.

Heart of the City Farmers' Market

Mack enjoys our light lunch

Satisfied, we wandered over to the neighbouring Hayes Valley, past their grand City Hall building and symphony hall. The shops were lovely to browse, but given that the first pair of shoes I picked up cost over $400, I knew we would only be window shopping.

San Francisco

We’re not in Canada anymore

We did stumble upon Paulette Macarons in the neighbourhood though, completely by accident. Valerie had recommended the place, a charming pastel-coloured boutique offering more than a dozen flavours of macarons.

Paulette

Paulette Macarons (loved the macaron artwork)

We tried the coffee and coconut ($1.60 each). They were Mack’s first macarons – he was surprised that they were not cloyingly sweet. Each had that intense burst of flavour, all contained inside a delicate yet punchy meringue shell, indicative of perfect execution.

Paulette

Mack with his first macaron!

After returning to our hotel to freshen up for dinner, we headed out on foot to our dinner destination. We walked through Chinatown, past what I dubbed “peep show row” on Broadway, and arrived at Fog City Diner, located near Pier 27.

Fog City Diner

Fog City Diner

Fog City Diner was billed, by Chowhound and others, as a “quintessential” San Francisco diner because of their food. But outfitted like a retro train car, with neon lights, cozy booths, and a long wooden bar, we could see how the decor reflected SF as well – appealing to tourists, but not over the top.

Fog City Diner

Interior

Once we got over the hump of being seated (it took about ten minutes or so; the wait staff were being run ragged), it was smooth sailing. We passed over what we probably should have ordered (their cioppino), and instead, opted for what would hit the spot.

The macaroni and cheese ($10) did just that, even if it was singlehandedly the richest we’d ever tried – it was essentially cheese fondue with noodles.

Fog City Diner

Mac ‘n’ cheese

The fish and chips ($17)  were a little less successful, mostly due to the amount of grease still simmering on the freshly fried fish, but I enjoyed the plate nonetheless.

Fog City Diner

Fish and chips

Mack’s 1/2 pound burger ($20 with fixings) was an epic creation, enhanced with mushrooms, applewood smoked bacon and a fried egg, but was similarly greasy. It was interesting, however, that our server asked Mack how he wanted his burger done –  something we never come across in Edmonton.

Fog City Diner

Burger

It was a good way to end our first day in San Francisco, and would be something of a pattern during our trip – filling up on food, then walking it off en route to our hotel. All hail a pedestrian-friendly city!